Mother of child brides testifies in polygamist sex abuse trial

PHOENIX (CN) — The mother of two underage girls married to religious leader Samuel Rappylee Bateman testified Wednesday in the trial of two Arizona men accused of aiding and participating in Bateman’s child sex abuse ring.

Julia Johnson, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told 15 jurors Tuesday morning that four of her daughters were given to Bateman in spiritual marriages in 2020. Two of them were 10 and 14 when Bateman married them and began having sex with them.

Bateman married his first child bride, the nine-year-old daughter of Johnson’s husband, Moroni Johnson, in March 2020. Julia Johnson said her husband and codefendant LaDell Bistline Jr. helped Bateman amass more than two dozen wives by asserting himself as a prophet and spiritual leader to replace Warren Jeffs, who led the FLDS until his arrest in 2006 and subsequent life imprisonment.

“It was a devastation,” Johnson said of the community’s response to Bateman’s assertion of power. Because Jeffs was in prison, no marriages could be approved in the roughly 8,000-person community in Colorado City, Arizona. But Bateman preached that men could receive permission directly from God and spread his new teaching to justify taking wives, Johnson said.

“It meant we were leaving the Church,” she said. “Not being obedient.”

“I couldn’t comprehend why there wasn’t a marriage ceremony that allowed her to consent,” she said of Bateman’s marriage to her eldest daughter, who was 17 at the time.

Johnson detailed multiple instances in which Bateman, Moroni Johnson and LaDell Bistline Jr. organized group sex with their many wives, adult and child alike, in hotel rooms in Lincoln, Nebraska. She was present for two of them, and watched one via video chat. On one occasion in November 2020, Bateman wanted to reenact the Bible story of Jesus washing his Apostles’ feet. He washed the feet of Moroni Johnson and LaDell Bistline Jr., then tried to have sex with the first man “to bond them as brothers,” Julia Johnson said.

When Bateman couldn’t stay aroused, he ordered his wives, who were completely naked, to touch his penis to help him. Still unsuccessful, Johnson said he chastised the young girls for “not having faith on his behalf.”

Bateman used sex as punishment in what he called atonement ceremonies, Johnson said, ordering men to sleep with others’ wives to make up for their sins. Johnson said LaDell Bistline Jr.’s brother, Torrance Bistline, anally raped a 14-year-old at Bateman’s behest.

Jacob Faussette, representing LaDell Bistline Jr., repeatedly tried to poke holes in Johnson’s stories, asking her detailed questions like what types of cars other wives showed up to the hotels in, the approximate length of the rooms, and where they stashed their clothes during the sexual acts.

Johnson said she’s tried for years to suppress the memories, so details are fuzzy, but she recalled each person in the room on each occasion and the sexual acts that took place.

Federal prosecutors clicked through images of Johnson’s account on Signal, a private encrypted messaging app that Bateman and his followers used to avoid detection. Torrance Bistline is accused of destruction of evidence and tampering with an official proceeding for deleting Signal messages when Bateman was arrested and indicted in August 2022.

But law enforcement was at least somewhat aware of Bateman’s behavior long before then. Prosecutor Ryan Powell told the jury Tuesday that a film crew invited to the community by Bateman himself had been telling the FBI what was going on, but the bureau pressed the filmmakers to find more hard evidence.

Police called Johnson in December 2020 to ask if she was aware that two of her children were living with Bateman. Johnson told them she was concerned, but other family members including her husband assured police that the kids were safe.

Bateman was pulled over by police that same month with five of his wives — two underage — but he was let go without trouble. When Bateman was arrested, Johnson received a phone call from police, she said. She told the officer she approved of the girls being with Bateman, but then she went to the FBI the same day.

“A woman does not have to follow her husband into Hell,” Johnson recalled telling herself, invoking the general teaching of her religion that women are to be “perfectly obedient” to their husbands.

Wednesday was the second day of what is expected to be a five-week trial.

LaDell Bistline Jr. is indicted on two counts of using interstate commerce to entice a minor into sexual conduct, four counts of transporting a minor for sexual activity and one count of transferring obscene materials to minors. Torrance Bistline is indicted on two counts of destruction of evidence, one count of using interstate commerce to entice a minor, conspiracy to destroy evidence, conspiracy to tamper with an official proceeding, and tampering with an official proceeding.

Moroni Johnson pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to transport minors across state lines. He is expected to testify early next week. Seven of Bateman’s adult wives have pleaded guilty to similar charges, and some have already been sentenced to prison.

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